


"Tis but a scratch!" says the Knight (but not if it was just a little deeper)

by EstaJay



Series: LU Update Follow Ups [2]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-15
Updated: 2020-06-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:47:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24736414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EstaJay/pseuds/EstaJay
Summary: That fight leaves Warriors with a scar. He doesn't care - everyone else does.(A follow up to Divine Dark Reflections pt 11)
Relationships: Hyrule & Warriors (Linked Universe)
Series: LU Update Follow Ups [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1941364
Comments: 10
Kudos: 177





	"Tis but a scratch!" says the Knight (but not if it was just a little deeper)

**Author's Note:**

> A little fic based on the recent update in the comics which you should ABSOLUTELY CHECK OUT BECAUSE JOJO IS JUST SO DAMN AMAZING AT FIGHT SCENES AND BOTH WARRIORS AND HYRULE LOOK ABSOLUTELY STUNNING (and that it provides the context for this fic)  
> https://linkeduniverse.tumblr.com/post/620694855253884928/previous-based-on-these-guys#notes

The battle was over but adrenaline still coursed through Hyrule's veins. Every breath was quick and fleeting as if he was in the midst of combat. He let his senses ground him, have reality pull him out of his battle high. 

The smell of burning bushes and monster corpses. 

The faint hum of residual magic running through his sword arm. 

The solid dusty ground beneath him. 

The solid hand gripping his shoulder - the hand that pulled him back and saved him from being crushed by a moblin corpse. 

Hyrule turned to Warriors. The captain's eyes were still fixated on where the monster once towered. Despite the flames all around them, they were dim - lacking the confident light that they normally overflowed with. Combined with the tension running through his jaw, he looked almost disappointed. At what though? Not the fight - Hyrule had seen the exhilarating passion in Warriors' every swing. Could it be him...?

Then Warriors turned to him and he smiled. Open, relieved and genuine. 

Hyrule found himself smiling as well. Warriors’ smiles were always infectious like that.

No. So he wasn’t disappointed in him. 

"A bit less than a snap, eh?" Warriors joked as the two heroes staggered to their feet.

"We handled ourselves well enough." Hyrule said, leaning on his sword. However, his mind was already racing through all the mistakes he had made during the previous battle - that poorly executed dodged and loss of balance that ended with him flat on the ground. These monsters may appear to be no different from the dozen others slain in the past but that black blood could not be underestimated under any circumstances. 

"Thanks for saving my sorry ass back there." Warriors said. 

"Don't mention it - especially after you saved mine seconds later."

There was a grin fixated on his face but Hyrule couldn't help but wonder - if he had been a little bit faster, a little bit stronger, a little bit better, would his comrade even be in that situation? He wasn't alone anymore. There were others relying on him to watch their backs and yet-

"Don't think that there's any sight of our little friend." Warriors stood tall, weapons sheathed but still exuding a clear aura of command without a hint of exhaustion. "I doubt there would be another monster camp nearby. We should regroup with the others - or find Sky at least. Luckily, he doesn't have your sense of direction."

Fuck, Sky. His wild chance had left one of their allies behind. Sure, Sky could take care of himself, better than Hyrule ever could anyway, but to abandon him just because he couldn't control his damn impulses-

Warriors threw an arm over his shoulder and drew Hyrule in. "You did great out there." He said, that easy grin, almost ferally playful among the glow of the dying embers, still alight.

That simple gesture of pride, of a job well done, was all it took to boost Hyrule's thoughts out of the spiraling pit of self-loathing.

Hyrule didn't notice the scar at first. Yes, he saw the lizalfos scratch Warriors mid-battle but Hyrule had written off that mark on his cheek as nothing that a warm cloth couldn't wipe away. 

Even after walking beside him for several hours, on the same side as the scar, Hyrule didn't notice until someone else pointed it out. 

They didn't find Sky but instead stumbled upon Time and Wind. 

"Looks like you've had some quality bonding time." Warriors said. 

The oldest hero and the youngest hero glowed with an identical glee when their gaze fell on the captain. For Wind it was simple enough, Warriors had all but taken him under his wing the moment the sailor joined their mismatched band. Between Time and Warriors, however, there was a poorly hidden familiarity. It was in the little things, how every word they shared hinted at a shared past, the fondness that seeped into their interactions. Maybe the old man was more obvious with his affections towards Twilight but there was something more playful, almost childish, with the way he acted around Warriors. 

Wind opened his mouth, ready to gush about what he and Time had been up to, but he stopped short. He stared at Warriors and said, "What happened to your face?"

Warriors rested his chin on the curve between thumb and index finger and winked. "What? I'm still as pretty as ever."

"He means the scratch." Time said bluntly, concern drenching his tone. Three pulsing red lines running from the edge of Warriors' right cheek down his neck to just above his scarf. "Those are going to scar."

But Warriors seemed completely unperturbed. His smile widened but Hyrule saw how it didn't quite reach his eyes. "Then it looks like we match now. Seems like you two had a more interesting fight here-"

And with that, Warriors effectively shut down any further discussion on the scar.

Warriors and Wind lead their small group of four, the sailor excitedly recounting his own battle that didn't end with any sort of near death encounter like his own, while Hyrule and Time lingered behind them. All eyes were trained on those three marks, deep angry wounds breaking up his pale skin. 

Despite the comfort between the pair in front of them, Hyrule and Time kept a healthy social distance. Hyrule would have much rather been by Warriors' side but he didn't want to be intruding on Wind's time with him. He had a couple interactions with Time in the past but he could boast the same closeness to the old man as Warriors or Twilight. In a group of nine, it had been so easy to stick with the heroes he felt most comfortable with - especially considering most of the time was spent getting lost with Wild. 

Come to think of it, if it weren't for Warriors, the group would have been so much more fractured. How quickly would little cliches formed among the heroes if Warriors hadn't been there to act as a common point between everyone. The captain seemed to be the only one who knew how to work in the group - the only who actively tried to keep the group together whether it be sparking some playful banter or encouraging group training sessions or simply sitting next to a different person every night and starting small talk.

Hyrule turned to Time. He wasn't outright ignoring him but wasn't about to start any sort of conversation without a prompt. If Time was a decade or so younger, would he still be their de facto leader?

They come across Four and Wild next who were divided between setting up camp and arguing over the spread of weapons lying on the ground. Even though they had been distracted, the other two heroes immediately picked up on Warriors' scars and just as quickly Warriors dismissed their concerns.

"We're in the midst of a wa- of an adventure with an evil lizard out for all of our heads. It's only a matter of time before someone ends up with something more permanent." Warriors said, completely composed. His words came out with practised ease but he didn't bother smiling anymore. 

It was enough to keep them from asking any more questions but two more pairs of eyes joined the ever growing watch on the captain's cheek. 

Warriors made a show of covering the scar up with a bandage, more out of thinly veiled annoyance then actual first aid. The stares regressed to quick glances but it was a temporary solution. That bandage would have to come off eventually and there would be three dark marks marring otherwise flawless skin. 

There had been bruises and bleeding in the past and scars weren't anything new to the heroes but this was different. Those scars were mementos of battles past - little tokens to show how they had survived and endured to make it to this day. But Warriors' new scar made the dangers of their current adventure all the more tangible. Someone could get hurt badly enough that it would leave a permanent mark - or worse. If that scratch had been a little lower, a little deeper - would Hyrule be skilled enough to heal him before the captain slipped away? 

Hyrule resisted the urge to keep staring. Just a little lower, just a little deeper and their number would be down to eight.

The tense peace was broken when Sky stumbled into camp with Twilight and Legend in tow. 

"Look who stumbled in just in time." Warriors said, careful to show his unscarred cheek to the newly arrived trio.

That meant Hyrule got a full profile of his bandaged side, of his soon to be scarred side. His fingers twitched. The sweat seeping into his nails could have been a much thicker redder liquid. That lizalfos' nails had been a glowing red. Red on red. Bright liquid dripping down claws and a hero felled in battle. 

Despite Warriors' efforts, the bandage didn't go unnoticed. 

"What...what the fuck happened to you?" Legend said, his voice completely devoid of snark. 

Twilight didn't say a word but the guilt in his eyes spoke volumes. 

"What happened to _you_ ? If you're going to get a spontaneous dye job in the middle of the woods, you should have picked a better colour than _pink_." Warriors threw back, turning to face Legend. His tone was light and playful as it always was when he was goading the veteran but he stood tall with his head raised, daring them to bring up the scar. "A little scratch in battle is more plausible than that. To think your fashion sense could get any worse."

But Legend didn't rise to the bait.

"Is it permanent?" Twilight asked softly.

Warriors shrugged. "Aren't all scars?"

"You got into a fight...and you got scarred..."

"It's a natural consequence of battle. It could have been a whole lot worse if it weren't for our traveller here." Warriors threw his arm over Hyrule shoulder once again but he could feel the desperation oozing out of him. He hoped that the others would take a hint and just drop the subject. "Though with the moves he was pulling on the battlefield, we might need a new nickname for him. Magician? Battle mage? Magic knight?"

"Still not a knight." Hyrule said dully, his attention focused on Twilight and Legend rather than the conversation.

It was in the slump of their shoulders, how Sky's eyes were wide and dilated, how Legend's scowl wasn't as cheeky, how Twilight kept grasping at his side. They all looked so guilty, as if they were the ones who sent those monsters after them. 

"Well then, why don't we change that?" But no one was listening to Warriors anymore. 

There was a pause. A gaping chasm of silence that reigned for a handful of seconds that stretched into eternity. 

Then Twilight broke the silence with the worst possible words, "I'm sorry."

Warriors shifted. It was the slightest change of weight, the arms more tightly crossed. "I am a soldier, _rancher_." They all jumped at the change in his tone. Gone was the playfulness and desperation to keep things civil. In their place was something colder, harder. More intimidating. More commanding. A true captain's voice. "Scars are part of the job. I'm more than just a pretty face-" then he cut himself off before he could finish the phrase. He looked away, his bandaged side in full view of the trio. "Sorry." he said, before another silence could take rein. Like a switch, his voice was back to normal. "It's just a scar. Don't make a big deal out of it."

The scar wasn't mentioned for the rest of the night but the tension was palpable. No one even dared saying another word. All eyes were decidedly fixed everywhere except at Warriors. It made everything just a tiny bit better and a metric demon lord worse. 

Fortunately, or rather unfortunately, when lots were drawn Hyrule ended up on first watch with the captain.

Hyrule absently poked at the dying embers of the fire. Warriors had gone to do a perimeter check and insisted on going alone. None of them were supposed to do perimeter checks alone, not even Time was exempted from the rule, but Hyrule couldn't bring himself to endure the awkwardness. 

Warriors was alone where he could be ambushed or attacked or injured and altogether left with a lot more than a single scar on his cheek - and Hyrule had let him. If the captain didn't come back, then Hyrule would be the one solely to blame. 

Hyrule knew that Warriors could handle himself. Capable and competent were the first words to describe the captain. Normally that would be joined by vain but given that he was ironically the one who cared the least about his newly acquired scar, that no longer seemed like a good descriptor.

Hyrule dragged his nails across his right cheek and all the way down his neck until he reached his collarbone. The embers painted them a bloody lizalfos-red. Those claws scratch above Warriors' jugular, Hyrule could feel the blood racing through his veins just beneath his fingertips. They had gone right over his windpipe, Hyrule chest pulsed under his shaking hand. 

Just a little lower. Just a little deeper. 

There was a thump beside him. 

Hyrule reached for his sword but before he could even touch the hilt, Warriors said, "It's just me."

Hyrule breathed out as Warriors settled beside him. His reaction time was pathetic. If that had been an actual enemy, he would have been dead.

"The perimeter is secure." Warriors said, staring into the embers. 

Hyrule hummed but didn't say anything more. He couldn't say anything more. The first word that would come out of his mouth would be about the scar and that would sour the rest of the watch.

Warriors sighed and turned to Hyrule. 

He had an objectively pretty face, no one would argue with that and more than once it had attracted them a little more attention in towns than necessary. 

During the group's early days, Warriors would spend their watches together going through his impressive repertoire of scorned lovers. He would regale Hyrule of tales that ended with slaps or being chased out of bars or pots being thrown that always left him red-faced with laughter. Whenever he pointed to someone who matched the description of one of those ex-lovers, Warriors would always comically duck his head under his scarf with a "It's her!" or a "Oh no, not him!" even if they weren't in his era.

He still remembered that night watch that concluded the tales of the captain's love life. Hyrule had his face stuffed in his bag because there was no way he could hold his laughter in any longer without waking anyone else up. 

"Do you want to know what the funniest thing about all this is?" Warriors had said with the widest grin on his face. "I'm not interested in sex. Or romance. Or any of those things."

And Hyrule had gawked. 

"Me too." was what he had stuttered but his eyes had been fixated on Warriors' face with disbelief. Warriors was so pretty and attracted suitors like flies to honey - and he simply wasn't interested in those things at all?

But all Hyrule could see now was that bandage, pale white as bare bone. 

The scar would be a defining feature of Warriors' face now. Permanent. 

A sardonic part of his mind wanted to say that now Warriors had a way to keep suitors at bay. The captain might have appreciated it if it were any other night but knowing that just a little bit lower, a little bit deeper, that scar could have been something dramatically worse-

"Thank you." Warriors said. 

Hyrule found himself gawking again. His jaw hung open but words refused to come out. 

Warriors sighed again and turned back to the fire. "What do you know of my adventure?"

Hyrule pressed his lips together as he tried to piece together what he knew. "You fought in a war. You got your arm burned by a dragon who could turn into a knight. You got the Master Sword and it made you feel extremely powerful. Time was there too somehow."

Warriors blinked. "That's a bit more than I was expecting." 

Hyrule shrugged. "It's just the obvious things. I'm not that perceptive."

"You're more perceptive than you give yourself credit for." 

"I'm just a traveller that got pulled into rescuing a princess. I'm not a soldier or a knight or-"

"You're a hero." Warriors said firmly. "A humble hero, yes, but that's what makes you one of the greatest among us." Then he gave a sardonic chuckle. "A little bit more humility would have saved me so much grief."

Warriors' gaze drifted and Hryule's followed. They landed on Sky who was sleeping with his back to them. The Master Sword laid behind him, deceptively innocuous half covered in grass. 

"Pride is a dangerous thing. It's deadlier than any sword could ever hope to be."

"But you have lots of things to be proud about."

Warriors laughed sadly. "Oh yes. Youngest soldier ever to be accepted into the Castle Knights then the youngest captain and now the youngest general. Swordsmanship unmatched by anyone in the entire army and more charisma than every past ruler combined. A face so pretty that it started a war and a mark that means I'm blessed by the goddesses themselves. The legendary hero reborn has so many things to be proud about." But proud was the last thing he sounded like. "When I drew the Master Sword, I felt powerful, invincible, _unbeatable_. Like all the stories go, the legendary hero who wields a legendary sword. Nothing could touch me now that my destiny was in full swing. It felt like I could single-handedly end the war right there and then. So that's what I tried to do."

"And that's how the war ended?" Hyrule asked. 

"That's how I nearly got myself killed. What use is a _legendary_ hero with a _legendary_ sword if they have a _legendary_ hubris that leads them straight into a trap? I escaped unmarked but I promised myself never to let my pride get the better of me again - then what happened today? Nearly get skewered by a fucking _moblin_ of all things because I got too cocky _again_. Black blood or not, that's utterly pathetic. " For the first time, Warriors reached up and touched his scar. "At least this time I've got something to put me back in my place. Just a little lower, just a little deeper and-” He dropped his hand and clenched his fist. “If it weren’t for you, I would have been dead.” He turned to Hyrule again, eyes glistening with a vulnerability he had never seen before. “Thank you." He said softly. 

Hyrule reached over and wrapped his arms around Warriors. He squeezed him tightly and buried his face in his arm to show that he was right there with him. Tears dripped down onto his hand but Warriors didn't make a single noise. 

Hyrule didn't know what to say. He had been so deep into his own self-loathing that he didn't stop to think how Warriors felt about all this. Words didn't matter at the moment though as he made sure the captain, his fellow hero and brother, knew that he was there for him - scarred or not, prideful or not. 

Warriors in return wrapped his arms around Hyrule and pulled him in. Just a little bit deeper, a little bit closer.


End file.
